this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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Also important to note that the TRPF is largely about new machinery. Competition involves increasing technology, which raises the mass of commodities and usually the mass of profits, but lowers the rate of profit. This is only fought by further raising the mass of profits via expansion, which is why we get imperialism as capitalism grows.

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The economics of space settlements are tricky.

When you open a bakery, who do you sell the bread to? To the people in the city. That's how you make money.

When you build rockets that can reach Mars, who do you sell to? And for what reason would anybody buy that product?

I believe this is where religion comes in. Ironically, religion (despite its very antique air about it) can aid capitalism to create a narrative around "human destiny is to reach for the stars" and "that was god's plan for us all along" to nourish public sentiment towards spaceflight. This in turn creates a movement that is independent from short-term return-on-investments. Space settlements don't have to return value as long as you can convince the public that you're fulfilling the human destiny to spread throughout the cosmos that way.